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We live in Mwanza, Tanzania, serving with Emmanuel International helping local churches in physical and spiritual ministry.

Friday, 9 May 2014

The Voice for the Voiceless

For the past three weeks, the world has cried out on
behalf of #bringbackourgirls; we have mourned and protested the horrible fact
that hundreds of girls from Chibok Government Secondary Girls School in Nigeria
have been kidnapped and remain held by Nigerian Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram.
This violent group that has massacred Christians for their faith now attacks
young girls for their education. They want to eradicate anything “Christian” and
anything “Western.”

So many people have run to social media, desperate to
be a “voice” for these young girls. For these and so many other girls who are
denied the right or access to education, denied the right to their own bodies
as they are stolen, sold, abused. These and so many women who have no voice,
who feel only shame and hopelessness.

Will our voices be heard?

Here in Tanzania, we have come face to face with the
terrible plight of so many women and young girls who have no voice. On one of
the islands on Lake Victoria, we know the woman struggling with HIV/AIDS, desperately needing
medicine but with a husband that refuses her help. We heard the screaming cries
of the woman being beaten by a man, presumably her husband in a drunken rage. But
she is in a culture that disempowers her legal rights. We listened on the steps
outside a bar to the desperation of two young women working in these lake shore places. They cannot see a way out of this life they despise on an island. We hear the
stories of young women, even girls from the age of 14, who roam the islands to
sell themselves. Even if they know the risks of contracting HIV, they are often
unable to get tested with the limited resources and services on the islands. Wives
are left abandoned by fishermen husbands who leave in search of a better catch
at an island elsewhere. The women are left to fend for themselves and their
children while the fisherman husband takes a new island woman.

The stories are not confined to these islands. Here
in town, women are on the streets, without hope, with stories of hurt and pain.
But they are women trapped in a lucrative business, one that is very difficult
to match in terms of providing a viable livelihood alternative. We listened to the
painful story of our friend in the city whose house-girl was brutally raped and
murdered. So many vulnerable people taken advantage of, their “rights” denied.

When it comes to education, we know that on these
islands, so much stands in the way of any children going to school: parents who
would rather their children stay home with other work to do and also a lack of safe
access to a school as some must travel by small boats to another island, which can
be dangerous. But particularly for girls, with increased pressure to stay at
home, sanitary issues preventing them, and schoolgirl abuse and pregnancy, even
without Islamic extremists to stop them, it isn’t easy.

Girls in school (Magozi) collect water

Young girls collect firewood

And yet even here, the threat of extremist groups
although small in comparison, is real and the ideology of Boko Haram permeates.
As Tanzania currently rewrites its constitution, issues political have pulled in
Islamic activity. Uamsho (The Association for Islamic Mobilisation and
Propagation, an Islamist Separatist Group here in Tanzania) wants the full autonomy of the Zanzibar Islands, making it a
centre of Islamic institution under Islamic law. Clashes have led to incidents
of religious persecution, particularly in Zanzibar. This all came rather close
to home just this week. A few days ago, just down the road from where we live (on Airport Road), a bomb blasted from
an abandoned bag in the Lutheran church guesthouse. The young woman cleaning at the time (a member
of the church and a friend of our friends’ house help) who found the bag
is now in very critical condition in hospital. There is no evidence of who is to
blame (many people had access to the church and guesthouse), or why this large Lutheran church was targeted, but speculation
abounds, particularly following recent events in Zanzibar earlier this year.

So what can we say? What voice do we have on behalf
of the voiceless? My voice, our voices, although we may clamour to shout, post
and tweet, will never be enough. But in our fallen world full of wickedness and
injustice, abuse and poverty, just one voice is needed. The Word. The Word that no one can silence. The Word that became flesh in Jesus.

“In faithfulness He will bring forth justice; he
will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In
his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:4)

The Word has the power to change lives. Through the
Spirit, which breathes things into being, a King’s policy is actioned. His just
purpose in the world is implemented. So yes, here in Tanzania, we will go to women to carry
out HIV testing in remote places, to educate and inform, to counsel through
illness and grief. We will go with Christ’s Daughters (Mwanza International
Community Church) to women on the streets to help and encourage them with
opportunities for honourable, safe businesses and we will go to young girls on the islands
to try and remove hurdles to help and encourage them to get an education. We will encourage upright
people of truth to pursue careers as judges and politicians in this nation, to
follow in the inspirational footsteps of women like Mama Kileo. We want to see blind eyes opened and those in
captive set free. So yes, we will “speak up for those who cannot speak for
themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the
poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Proverbs 31:8-9).

One woman trains as a potter in Ikuka

But most importantly we want to continue to go to these women
and girls with the Word. To read with them, where necessary to teach them to read. That they might know the Voice that speaks both to them and for them. The
Voice that says they are loved, they are valued, they have worth. The Voice
that identifies with them when no one else can. The Voice that tells their
story and puts it in a bigger, better one. The Voice that speaks life.

2 comments:

So true that whilst the concerns of so many go viral will they actually lead to any change at all? We pray and weep and pray and hope in Him.

As ever I'm encouraged and inspired to hear about what's going on where you are in Tanzania; initiatives to bring hope, new life and freedom from captivity and the sharing of His Word which itself contains all of these.

I thank God for the work that you and others are doing. Bless you and may He continue to bless, increase and reveal himself over and over again to all in Tanzania.

You sound far from weary, but Galatians 6:9 came to mind:' Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.'

My prayer is that all of you that are labouring in the field shall reap and reap and reap for His praise and glory.